Starching composition

ABSTRACT

A starching composition containing, as a lubricant, from 0.5 to 5 percent by weight, based on the weight of the effective starching component, of at least one compound of a molecular weight in the range of 4,500 to 12,000 and selected from the group consisting of the ethylene oxide adducts of (a) fatty alcohols of 12 to 18 carbon atoms, (b) saturated fatty acids of 12 to 18 carbon atoms and (c) alkylphenols of 14 to 18 carbon atoms.

United States Patent 191 Katsumi et a1. Nov. 6, 1973 STARCHING COMPOSITION 3,068,120 12/1962 Jacobson et al. 106/197 c [751 Katsumi: Toshio Saw; i'ZZiSi 211323 ki'li 'z'i'iliil'II.......IIIII 1821i Yasuo Yanagawa; Tadao Hara, all of Wakayama, Japan 4 Primar ExaminerAllan Lieberman 73 A 1 K s c T Y I sslgnee an MP 0 Ltd okyo Japan Attorney-Woodhams, Blanchard & Flynn [22] Filed: Dec. 27, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 212,642

[57] ABSTRACT [30] Foreign Apphcailon Pnomy Data A starching composition containing, as a lubricant, Dec. 30, 1970 Japan 45/122268 from 05 to 5 percent weight, based on h i h of the effective starching component, of at least one [52] 106/197 106/213 260/29'6 B compound of a molecular weight in the range of 4,500 [5 l] 'f Cosb 21/32 Cosh 25/02 Cosf 45/24 to 12,000 and selected from the group consisting of the [58] Field of Search 106/197 C, 213; ethylene oxide adducts of (a) f tt alcohols 0f 2 to 1 260/29-6 13 carbon atoms, (b) saturated fatty acids of 12 to 18 carbon atoms and (c) alkylphenols of 14 to 18 carbon [56] References Cited atoms UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,645,584 7/1953 Wiegerink 106/197 C 9 Claims, N0 Drawings 1 STARCHING COMPOSITION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a starching composition and, in particular, to a starching composition containing a lubricant.

Starching agents for use in domestic starching should meet various requirements, especially the following:

A. a cloth or clothing treated with such a starching agent should allow an iron to slide thereon smoothly,

B. when a cloth is soaked in a starching solution, the starching agent in the solution should be well adsorbed by the cloth,

C. a cloth treated with a starching agent should have an excellent flexural stiffness or bending resistance, and

D. a cloth treated therewith should have an excellent compressive elasticity, that is, it should have a massiveness or feeling of fullness.

2. Description of the Prior Art Starch, carboxymethylcellulose and polyvinyl alcohol, which have hitherto been used as starching agents, meet well the above requirements (B), (C) and (D), but they do not satisfy the above requirement (A). Therefore, they are unsatisfactory in working property and finish. For eliminating this drawback, various lubricants for starching agents have hitherto been developed.

For instance, there have been proposed, as lubricants, a silicone oil and a polyoxyethylene glycol in, respectively, Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 17093/63 and 18593/63. A starching agent containing such a lubricant has a good working property and affords animproved finish with respect to ironing. However, in order to effect a sufficient improvement in such properties it is necessary to use the lubricant in a large amount, such as about wt. percent or more. A starching agent containing a smaller amount of such a lubricant provides, to a cloth treated therewith, superior slipperiness to an iron, as compared to an agent not containing such a lubricant, but it is not satisfactory in the above properties (B), (C) and (D), namely, adsorption of the starching agent by a cloth immersed in a starching solution, stiff ness orv flexural resistance and massiveness of the finished cloth. V

The present invention has for its object to solve such problems and to provide a starching agent of an improved quality. That is, the starching agent of the present invention is well adsorbed by a cloth and affords a finished cloth which is excellent not only in slipperiness to an iron, but also in the feelings of stiffness and massiveness. It is an important feature of the present invention that the lubricant of the present invention is sufficiently-effective even if it is used in a small amount .of 5 wt. percent or less, based onthe weight of the effective starch component, while the known lubricants must be used in amounts-of at least 1.0 wt. percent to obtain completely satisfactory results.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a starching composition which is characterized by the fact that it contains from 0.5 to 5 percent by weight of at least one compound .of'a molecular weight of 4,500 to 12,000, which compound is obtained'by adding ethylene oxide to a compound selected from the group consisting of C C higher alcohols, (preferably saturated fatty alcohols), C Ci higher saturated fatty acids and C aklylphenols (alkyl C C As the higher alcohol, there may be used any higher alcohol from lauryl alcohol of C to octadecyl alcohol of C although it is preferred to use cetyl alcohol and octadecyl alcohol. As the higher fatty acid, there can be used any of those from lauric acid of C to stearic acid of C although it is preferred to use palmitic acid and stearic acid. As the alkylphenol there can be used any of those from octylphenolsof C to dodecylphenols of C The compound is prepared by adding ethylene oxide to such an alcohol, fatty acid or alkylphenol to obtain molecular weights of 4,500 to 12,000, preferably 7,000 to 9,000. The amount of such a lubricant compound of the pres- .ent invention added to the starching composition dance with known practice. The ratio of the starching agent to water is generally in the range of from 0.5 to 3 percent, preferably 1 to 2 percent by weight.

As an invention which may be compared with the present invention, there is an invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 9517/67 (hereinafter referred to as Invention A). Invention A relates to a starching composition containing therein 30 to 70 wt. percent, based on the weight of the effective starching components in the liquid starching composition, of a surface active agent of the structure of a random 'or block adduct of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide to a higher alcohol. Compared with the Invention A, the composition of the present invention differs essentially therefrom especially in the following aspects:

1. The present invention is characterized by containing in the starching composition a lubricant in a small amount of 5 percent or less, whereas the Invention A is characterized by containing a lubricant in a large amount of 30 to 70 percent. The lubricant in the present invention is only an assistant, whereas the lubricant in Invention A is regarded as a base material rather than an assistant, in view of its high concentration.

2. The differences between the starching composition of the present invention and that of the Invention A can be elucidated by comparing the properties of a starching composition containing a small amount of a lubricantof the present invention with those of another starching compositioncontaining a small amount of the lubricant of the Invention A, for instance, as illustrated in the following examples, in which are compared starching compositions comprising a starch paste, carboxymethylcellulose, polyvinyl alcohol or like base containing therein 1.5 percent by weight of (1') a lubricant according to the present invention and (2) the adduct of the Invention A.

It seems that the reason for the unexpected differences in the properties, despite the similarity in the molecular structure of the lubricants, is that the lubricant of the lnvention A is a relatively low molecular compound of a molecular weight of 1,000 to 2,000, as is understood from the description of its specification, and it has a high surface activity as indicated by a surface tension of an order of 30 dyne/crn as shown in the following Table 1, whereas the lubricant of the present invention is a high molecular weight compound of a molecular weight of at least 4,500 and, therefore, it has little surface activity as is indicated by its surface tension of about 50 dyne/cm as shown in the Table 1. Thus, the lubricant of the present invention does not serve as a surface active agent, but rather serves as merely a water-soluble polymer. A lowermolecular weight compound of the same type of structure as the lubricant of the present invention has a remarkably high surface activity and is unsuitable for use as a lubricant for the preparation of the starching composition of the present invention.

EXAMPLES Starching compositions were prepared by the following procedures (1), (2) or (3). In the examples, all parts are parts by weight.

1. Starch based composition In 100 parts of water were suspended 100 parts of potato starch, 2.3 parts of sodium carbonate and 1.5 parts of a lubricant. The suspension was then processed at temperatures within the range of 130 to 140C. by means of a drum dryer to convert the starch into the astate and the composition was ground by means of a grinder into a powder of a particle size of 60 mesh or less to obtain a product.

2. Polyvinyl alcohol based composition In 100 parts of water were dissolved 5 parts of a polyvinyl alcohol (Gohsenol GL05, Nippon Synthetic Chemical Industry Co.) and 0.075 part of a lubricant with stirring to obtain a starching liquid.

3. Carboxymethylcellulose based composition In water were dissolved 5 parts of a carboxymethylcellulose (supplied by Shikoku Kasei K.K.) and 0.075 part of a lubricant to obtain a viscous solution and the solution was then sufficiently dried by means of a drum dryer at 100C. and then was ground by means of a speed mill into a powder of a particle size of 60 mesh or less.

Treatments of cloth samples by the starching compositions thus obtained and tests of the treated cloth were carried out in the following manners.

a. Bending resistance test A 30 cm X 30 cm piece ofa No. 60 broad cloth made of cotton or a blend of cotton and polyethylene terephthalate fiber was treated with a starching solution prepared by dissolving 2 g. of a starching composition in 200 cc of water and then squeezed by means of a mangle-type squeezer to a squeeze rate of 100 percent. After drying, the test piece was ironed under fixed conditions and, after being left over 24 hours at room temperature, 60 percent RH, was subjected to a determination of bending resistance by a Clark method in accordance with .118 L l005l956.

The results obtained are summarized in the following Table 2. In the Table, the values indicate the value of flexural resistance. The starching solution based on polyvinyl alcohol was used in an amount of times the amount of the starchor carboxymethylcellulose-based starching composition to equalize the content of starching agent applied to the cloth pieces.

b. Compressive elasticity ratio and feeling of massiveness A cloth treated in the same manner as in the determination of flexural resistance" according to (a) above was cut into 5 cm X 5 cm pieces and 10 pieces were piled up, one on top of another. The pile was subjected to a measurement of compressive elasticity ratio by means of a Maeda compressive elasticity tester.

The thickness A of the pile was measured under a load of 10 g. After being left under a load of 600 g for 3 minutes, the pile was again subjected to measurement of its thickness A under a load of 10 g. Calculating the elastic recovery from the ratio A /A the compressive elasticity ratio of each test piece was calculated, with reference to a control sample assigned an arbitrary value of 100. The results are summarized in the following Table 3. The larger the value in the Table, the greater is the compressive elasticity, i.e., the better is the feeling of massiveness. In the Table there are also summarized the results of tests of feeling of massiveness as determined by a test panel of 10 persons who manually felt the samples. The test panel evaluated the feeling of massiveness by assigning to each sample a quality value in accordance with the following standard. The larger the value; the better is the feeling of massiveness.

Feeling of massiveness:

Excellent +2 Good +1 Average 0 Poor 1 Very poor 2 The results of this evaluation listed in Table 3 represents the sum of the quality values assigned to the samples by the test panel.

c. Slipperiness to ironing 50 cm X 50 cm pieces of the treated cloth as used in the determination of flexural resistance in (a) above were used as test pieces. The ironing test was made by a test panel of 10 persons. First 3 cc of water was uniformly sprayed on each test piece and, after about 10 seconds, the test piece was ironed at an ironing temperature of 170C. The test panel rated the slipperiness in accordance with the following standard.

Ironing:

Very smooth 13 2 Smooth +1 Average 0 Difficult 1 Very difficult 2 The evaluations obtained were summarized in the following Table 4 in whichthe larger the value, the better is the slipperiness.

From these results it can be concluded that the starching composition of the present inventionis excellent in all of the desired properties, namely, (1 capacity of being adsorbed by cloth, (2) ironing property, (3) flexural resistance and (4) feeling of massiveness of a cloth treated therewith and in all-round rating.

TABLE 1. Surface tension Surface Molecular tension Lubricant used weight (dyne/cm) Octadecyl alcohol (EO), about 1,200 37 Octadecyl alcohol 2,500 42 Octadecyl alcohol (E0) 4,700 54 Octadecyl alcohol(EO) 6,900 55 Octadecyl alcohol(EO) 9,100 55 Octadecyl alcohol(EO) 11,300 55 5 Lauryl alcohol(EO) 4,600 53 Lauryl alCh0l(E0)zno 9,000 54 Nonylphenol(EO) 2,400 45 Nonylpheno1(EO) about 4,600 48 Nonylphenol(EO) 9,000 52 Stearic Acid(EO),, 2,500 37 Stearic acid(EO) 4,700 52 Stearic acid(EO 9,100 54 Octadecyl alcohol(PO),,,(EO) 35 1,400 Note: l

The surface tension was determined at C. on a 0.01 percent by weight aqueous solution by means of a du Nouy surface tension balance. The concentration was determined by considering theconcentration of a bles 3 and 4, these terms have the same meanings.

TABLE 3.-FEEL1NG OF MASSIVENE SS, COMPRESSIVE ELASTICITY RATIO Feeling, of mas- Evaluation Compressive elasticity ratio siveness Tetoron- Cloth Cotton cotton Cotton Molecular Lubricant added Base weight Starch PVA CMC Starch Starch Octadecyl alcohol (B0) about 1,200 98 100 v 98 94 l9 Octadecyl alcohol (EO) 2,500 99 101 103 97 17 Octadecyl alcohol'(EO) 0 4,700 120 1 16 121 130 9 Octadecyl alcohol (EO) 6,900 133 117 120 136 17 Octadecyl alcohol (EO)20u-.. 9.100 137 121 123 137 18 Octadecyl alcohol (150)250- ll,300 136 l 17 120 140 1- l7 Lauryl alcohol (EO)1o0-. 4,600 129 122 122 135 15 Lauryl alcohol (EO)200-- 9,000 134 120 124 134 19 Nonylphenol (130)511... 2,400 108 104 107 99 2 Nonylphenol (EO)1no-- 4,600 129 121 119 234 19 Nonylphenol (EO)zo0.. 9,000 138 121 122 137 17 Stearic acid (EO) 1,..... 2,500 106 103 102 105 7 Stearic acid (150)100- 4,700 138 123 124 129 19 Stearic acid (B01100. 9,100 139 121 122 130 16 Octadecyl alcohol (P 15 1,400 99 101 101 103 14 Polyoxyethylene glycol 6,000 96 100 101 104 14 None (control) 100 100 100 100 lubrlcant in a starching solution suited for actual do- TABLE 4. Ironing property mestic use. T t E0 and PC mean ethylene oxide and propylene ox- Cloth: Com, 2:? 1de, respectively, and, for instance, Octadecyl a1- L b Molecular u riweig t cohol(EO) means a compound obtained by adding cam used Base: Starch PVA CMC Starch 20 moles of ethylene oxide to one mole of octadecyl al- Octadecyl about cohot alcohol(EO) 1,200 19 20 19 15 Octadecyl alcohoKEO), 2,500 20 l7 l7 17 B E Flexur l sistance Octadecy TA L 2 a re a.1coho1(EO) 4,700 +11 +18 +13 +11 Octadecyl Tetoronalcohol(EO) 6,900 +18 +19 +19 +17 Cloth: Cotton cotton Octadecyl Molecular alcohol(EO) 9,100 +19 +20 +20 +19 Lubriweight Octadecyl cant Base: Starch PVA CMC starch alcohol(EO) 11,300 +20 +20 +19 +18 used Lauryl Octadecyl about alcohol( E0) 4,600 +20 +19 +19 +19 alcohol(EO), 1,200 99 8.9 9.8 9.7 50 Lauryl Octadecyl a1coho1( E0 9,000 +20 +1 7 +20 +20 alcohol(EO) 2,500 10.5 9.7 10.3 10.3 Nonylphenol Octadecyl (E010 2,400 9 16 1 5 l4 alcohoKEO) 4,700 12.6 10.1 12.9 12.7 Nonylphenol Octadecyl (Eohw 4,600 +18 +16 +13 +17 alcohol (B0), 6,900 13.4 12.0 15.1 14.6 Nonylphenol Octadecyl about (B0) 9,000 +19 +19 +19 +20 alcohol Stearic acid 9,100 13.6 12.7 15.3 14.7 120 2,500 -14 -17 11 10 Octadecyl Stearic acid alcohol (E0) 4,700 +18 +20 +17 +18 (B0), 11,300 13.6 12.6 15.5 14.6 Stearic acid Lauryl 150 9,100 +20 +20 +17 +19 alcohol 0 Octadecyl (E0), 4,600 13.5 12.7 14.9 14.2 a1coho1(PO), Lauryl (EO) 1,400 -7 13 16 14 alcohol Polyoxyethylene (150), 9,000 13.4 12.9 15.7 14.5 glycol 0 7 1 4 Nonylphenol None (control) 20 19 17 20 150 2,400. 10.4 9.7 1 1.7 10.2 Nonylphenol 65 The embodiments of the mvention 1n Wh1Ch anexclug i l '4'600 sive property or privilege is claimed are defined as fol- On eno 9,000 13.7 12.8 15.3 14.4 lows! F l. A composition adapted to be dlssolvedm water to xiii-1E 2'500 form a starching solution, consisting essentially 011(1) w ow)... 4,700 a starching agent selected from the group consisting of starch, polyvinyl alcohol and carboxymethylcellulose and (2) from 0.5 to 5 percent by weight, based on the weight of starching agent, of at least one lubricant of a molecular weight in the range of from 4,500 to 12,000 selected from the group consisting of ethylene oxide adducts of a higher alcohol containing 12 to 18 carbon atoms, ethylene oxide adducts of a higher fatty acid containing 12 to 18 carbon atoms and ethylene oxide adducts of an alkylphenol containing 14 to 18 carbon atoms.

2. A composition according to claim 1, in which the molecular weight of the lubricant is in the range of from 7,000 to 9,000.

3. A composition according to claim 1, in which the amount of the lubricant is in the range of from 1 to 3 percent by weight, based on the weight of starching agent.

4. A composition according to claim 1, in which the starching agent is starch or carboxymethylcellulose and the composition consists essentially of a dry particulate powder.

5. A starching composition according to claim 1, consisting essentially of an aqueous solution containing from 0.5 to 3.0 percent by weight of starching agent.

6. A composition according to claim 1, in which the lubricant is an ethylene oxide adduct of octadecyl alcohol.

7. A composition according to claim 1, in which the lubricant is an ethylene oxide adduct of lauryl alcohol.

8. A composition according to claim 1, in which the lubricant is an ethylene oxide adduct of nonylphenol.

9. A composition according to claim 1, in which the lubricant is an ethylene oxide adduct of stearic acid. 

2. A composition according to claim 1, in which the molecular weight of the lubricant is in the range of from 7,000 to 9,000.
 3. A composition according to claim 1, in which the amount of the lubricant is in the range of from 1 to 3 percent by weight, based on the weight of starching agent.
 4. A composition according to claim 1, in which the starching agent is starch or carboxymethylcellulose and the composition consists essentially of a dry particulate powder.
 5. A starching composition according to claim 1, consisting essentially of an aqueous solution containing from 0.5 to 3.0 percent by weight of starching agent.
 6. A composition according to claim 1, in which the lubricant is an ethylene oxide adduct of octadecyl alcohol.
 7. A composition according to claim 1, in which the lubricant is an ethylene oxide adduct of lauryl alcohol.
 8. A composition according to claim 1, in which the lubricant is an ethylene oxide adduct of nonylphenol.
 9. A composition according to claim 1, in which the lubricant is an ethylene oxide adduct of stearic acid. 